Afghan election commission to reveal results today

Afghanistan’s election commission will announce long-delayed final results in the bitterly disputed presidential vote today, whether or not the rival candidates claiming victory reach a power-sharing deal, a spokesman said yesterday.

Two months of crisis over the election to replace President Hamid Karzai have further destabilized violence-plagued Afghanistan as foreign troops prepare to withdraw at year’s end, leaving Afghan forces to fight the Taliban insurgency.

The rival candidates – former finance minister Ashraf Ghani and ex-foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah – were meeting yesterday. Aides said they were close to finalizing a deal but an Abdullah spokesman threatened to pull out of the talks if the poll results were released before an agreement.

Preliminary results released in July showed Ghani in the lead with 56 percent of the vote.

The early results prompted street protests from supporters of Abdullah, who charged massive fraud and said he was the rightful winner.

Final results have been delayed for weeks by a U.N.-monitored audit of all 8 million ballots cast in the June 14 run-off vote between Ghani and Abdullah, the top finishers of the first round in April.

However Independent Election Commission spokesman Noor Mohammad Noor said the body is legally bound to release results now that all technical details have been completed.

“It is clear that tomorrow the IEC will announce the final results based on the 100 percent audit,” Noor said.